Off the Record
by Anile
Summary: Nine years ago Michelangelo's flute dissapeared in the middle of the night. This is a story reveiling few of the many secrets about that fateful night.


_Hello there everyone! I know I haven't updated Happy Now? For a long time. And I also know I've promised myself not to post another story before I finish 'Happy now?' but this plot bunny just kept nagging at me begging me to write it. I also think it's a nice thing to let you know I'm still alive ;) This is (a long) one-shot based on a true story. I hope you'll enjoy. _

_Anile._

_Dedication:__ This story is for everyone who has lost their favourite toy because someone else was annoyed by it. _

_Disclaimer: __I don't own the characters in this story. Hell, I even don't own the plot bunny who gave me the idea for this story. I even don't own a flute (any more). sniff _

"Dude." Michelangelo sighed. " Aren't those people like totally awesome?" He said in awe to the others.

For good times sake April and Casey had come over to the lair to just relax and talk a bit with their unusual friends. They were seated in the living room and had enough snacks, pizza and tea to make everyone happy. After a few hours of talking, laughing and arguing their conversation fell silent and everyone was caught up in their own thoughts or memories. They stared unconsciously at the television, they had been watching a movie but they got so caught up in each other that they even hadn't noticed the movie coming to an end a long time ago. Now the telly displayed an orchestra playing and Michelangelo, the only one who was really watching, commentated on the players.

The others looked at the turtle with a confused expression, they had no idea where he was talking about.

"Mikey, what are you talking about?" Donatello asked, resting his ideas for a new invention.

Michelangelo pointed enthusiastically at the screen. "Those flute players! Aren't they playing awesomely?" He said with a dreamy face.

This left the others surprised.

"I didn't knew you had a thing for flutes Mikey." Leo commented.

Splinter, who was sipping at his tea, choked and coughed. April looked worriedly at the older rat and hit him on his back. The latter cringed in pain from the hard slams and signed April that she should stop. When the coughing finally stopped he took a deep breath and smiled at the redhead.

"Are you okay?" she asked the rat.

Splinter nodded. " Thank you miss O'Neil." He said while rubbing his back discreetly with one paw.

His attention shifted back to his sons and Casey. The others were still teasing Michelangelo about the flutes. The latter desperately tried to defend his precious wind instrument and explain the others why a flute was cool. This all much to the amusement of his brothers and Casey.

Splinter shifted and listened nervously to this argument. He could feel something was wrong. He felt something was going to happen which was going to change everything, forever. Old secrets were ready to be discovered and destroy everything he had worked so hard for. The rat closed his eyes and took a deep breath. He was being paranoid. Maybe nothing would happen after all, maybe the subject would just fade away. Yes, everything would be all right. He smiled again and took his cup of tea back.

"Thank god," Leonardo said when the argument was over. Michelangelo was sulking in his chair and his brothers and Casey had shared a good laugh.

"It's a good thing we hid Mikey's flute when we had the chance to do it."

Or maybe it wouldn't be all right. Splinter swallowed his tea this time and brought his paw to his head. This was bound to happen some day. Secrets couldn't be kept forever, but how he would have liked that this one wouldn't be mentioned _ever_ again.

Donatello sighed and nodded in agreement with his brother. " Amen brother. That was one of the best days of my life."

" Mikey had a flute?" Raphael, April and Casey asked at the same time.

Donatello and Leonardo looked with a shocked expression at their hot-headed brother. "You mean you don't remember?" Asked Leonardo.

Raphael shrugged. Donatello gasped and Leonardo began to laugh like a hysteric horror character.

"You mean," he said between his hysterical laughter. "that you don't remember those days of absolute continuous torture, while Don and I have it engraved in our memories?"

Donatello nodded again and whispered. "Traumatic experience. Never been the same again." With his eyes wide open, looking like he re-experienced the worst day of his life.

April, Casey and Raphael blinked at the exaggerated reaction of Donatello and Leonardo. Then finally the silence, except for Leo's laughing, was broken by a heartbreaking voice.

"You took my recorder?" Michelangelo asked with an unbelieving voice.

"I've been looking for that flute for months. I asked all of you where my flute was, but you said you didn't know. Years after I was still wondering where my recorder could be. It was one of my most praised possessions. I loved that flute. And you, you took it?" The normally happy turtle said all of this with a look of absolute betrayal on his face. He couldn't comprehend the cruelty of his own brothers. The people who he'd trust the most.

Leonardo and Donatello felt a pang of guilt. They did take Michelangelo's flute and hid it in a secret place. But after a few weeks they felt so sorry for their little brother that they planned to give him the recorder back. However, when they reached their hiding place they couldn't find it anywhere.

"We did hide your recorder but we also had the intention to retrieve it to you!" Donatello told Michelangelo, trying to make things a little bit better since April was looking at him and Leonardo with a blaming look.

"But we've kinda forgotten were we hid it." Leonardo added.

Splinter looked around. Maybe he could get away in time. He used all of his ninja stealth to move slowly away from the soon to be battle field.

"That flute." Raphael exclaimed suddenly. He smirked and shook his head.

"But you didn't take Mikey's flute! Master Splinter did."

Shocked expressions and gasps followed this statement. Splinter felt like he was standing in the spotlights. He looked like a deer caught in the headlight, standing at the far end of the living room. "I was so close." He said to himself as he moved away from the kitchen door and walked towards his shocked family.

"Is it true Father?" Michelangelo asked with teary eyes and a trembling under lip.

"You didn't take my recorder did you? You would never do such a thing!" Splinter didn't admit nor deny this and just shook his head sombrely.

"It isn't something I'm proud of." Everyone except for Raphael, who was smirking the whole time, gasped at the revelation.

Splinter found himself at loss of words. How could he explain something like this?

"Just let me tell a story." He began.

"_It all happened nine years ago and my sons were around the age of seven. It was a cold winter and I had a hard time keeping my little family nice and warm. There wasn't a lot of food and I spend many hours a day, finding food and other supplies young turtles needed. One day when I was scavenging I found something striking. It was a recorder and it was in a good shape, safely put away in a linen bag. I was delighted by this discovery. My sons were very active and they hated to stay inside all the time. Since I refused to let them head anywhere without my supervision, I was happy to be able to give them something nice they could play with. I took the flute with me and headed home again, already imagining their happy faces. When I got home however I was in for a surprise." _

"_When I stepped inside I wasn't greeted with my usual fan club of chattering turtles who told me every detail about what they had done, or sadly enough crying what the other(s) had done to them. Today however I didn't see any of my hyper or crying children. Worrying a little bit I went further inside and much to my relief I found my children giggling at the kitchen table playing a cards game. I smiled and walked towards them when I noticed something was missing. There were only three of my sons present. "Where is Michelangelo?" I asked my other sons. This question only made them laugh and giggle more. By this time I got worried again and turned to Leonardo. "Where's your little brother?" I asked urgently. He looked at me with the most angelic look he could muster and replied innocently he didn't knew. Donatello started giggling again and Raphael poked him in his side to make him stop. Now I turned towards Donatello. "Donatello what did you do to Michelangelo?" Donatello didn't answer immediately but looked at me with a guilty sparkle in his eyes. Then he burst out giggling again. I really got worried now. "Donatello you have to tell me where your brother is. Is he in trouble? He isn't hurt is he?" _

"_He'd deserve to be." Raphael huffed. "Raphael!" I said shocked and angry. "You're not to speak like that about your brother."_

"_But it' s true!" Leonardo exclaimed. He folded his arms and said: "Mikey was acting very immature and annoying. He just kept throwing our cards on the floor. He ruined the whole game!" That's when I got a vague idea what had happened to my youngest. _

"_Enough!" I said with a loud voice. "You're going to show me where you've put Michelangelo and then we're going to have a long talk about how you treat your brothers."_

"_After I had freed Michelangelo from the closet and sent my other sons to my room for later punishment, I took a sobbing Michelangelo in my arms and put him on my lap. _

"_I didn't mean to throw the cards on the ground Father, it was all just a accident." He said hiccupping. I nodded and comforted him. I didn't know how long Michelangelo had been there, and none of my sons had a time span but I'm sure that it must have been for Michelangelo, who was afraid for the dark and doesn't like to be alone, a very long time. That's when an idea came to me. The recorder. I planned to give it to all of my sons, but I was too disappointed in the others and I thought this present might do the trick to cheer Michelangelo up. "I've got something for you my son." You should've seen Michelangelo's face when he saw the recorder. A big grin appeared on his tearstained face and the light returned in his eyes. "A flute!" he exclaimed happily. I had taught my sons all sort of things about musical instruments but had never been able to show them a real one. _

"_It's a recorder." I explained him. I took the flute in my hands and placed my fingers over the holes and blew. A note escaped from the instrument and filled the room with the sound. Michelangelo looked at the recorder with awe and clapped his hands. _

"_Ow let me try! Please pretty please! I wanna try." I had to laugh at his impatience and showed him how to hold the recorder. That's when I noticed the first problem. The flute was created for two five fingered hands and there were seven holes. Michelangelo, as all my sons, only had three fingers each hand. Michelangelo didn't mind this at all and clumsily held the flute. Then he took a deep breath and blew with the flute in his mouth. Next to my ears. A horrible deafening false sound followed and I could feel my eardrums, from my oversensitive hearing may I say, shatter. Then finally Michelangelo was out of breath and the sound stopped. I winced and blessed the sweet silence, rubbing my sore ears. Not that it made any difference of course." _

"_How did it sound?" Michelangelo asked with a hopeful delighted expression. I could feel tears in my eyes from the thumbing in my ear but I couldn't disappoint him, that would be cruel. "It's" I sought for the right choice of words. "unforgettable." Michelangelo jumped on my lap again and hugged me. "This is the best gift ever." He whispered in my ear. _

_When he ran out the room with the recorder in his hands I figured it couldn't do any harm to let him play with it for a while. Eventually he'd get enough of it and he'd abandon the recorder for a new toy. I just kept repeating this to myself when I heard the wailing of his fluting from the other room."_

"Hmm, I always thought you were crying because you thought I was playing the recorder so beautifully." Michelangelo said dazed.

April glared at the turtles. I can't believe you were so cruel to Michelangelo. She stood up and hugged him. "Poor baby." Michelangelo grinned and winked at Donatello, who didn't seem that pleased at all.

"Whow Raph, I can't believe you were that kind of a bully!" Casey exclaimed. He then gave it a second thought and looked at the raised eyebrows of the others. "All right, maybe I can believe it after all."

"I feel bad now." Leonardo said. "We did pretty mean things back then."

"He he," Raph said. "we were a pretty good team bro." He thought back of all the nice moments he and Leonardo had shared, containing frightening and teasing Michelangelo.

Splinter coughed and grabbed everyone's attention again. "What I was saying," he continued.

"_Michelangelo really was fond on the recorder. He and his precious flute where inseparable, and he never went anywhere without it. He played it everyday hours long and it never improved, even not a little bit. When he played the flute I made sure I was in the opposite direction at the far end of the lair or out scavenging. I wasn't the only one, bothered by the sound, my other sons also complained about it. But even when I tried to take the recorder back from Michelangelo he was just to happy with it and I wasn't able to take it away. Eventually we came to an agreement of playing the flute two hours a day at max. But even these hours seemed too much to deal with. When I went to sleep at night I swore I could still hear the awful sound of his fluting. __He kept me from my meditation, he interrupted my naps and reading was impossible to do. When I came to a breaking point I overheard a conversation._

"_This is driving me crazy!" Leonardo said throwing his arms in the air. He looked expectantly at his brothers. The three of them were sitting in the living room all minding there own business when Michelangelo decided to 'play' again. Even though he played it in the turtles bedroom which was at the other side of their lair, they could still hear every note of the play. _

"_Doesn't this bother you?" He asked Donatello and Raphael. Donatello was playing with a broken toaster and Raphael was building a tower of blocks._

_Donatello looked at him and smiled. "WAIT A MINUTE!" he jelled. Leonardo backed away. He watched with confusion as Donatello put his hand under his purple mask and pulled a huge pile of cotton wool from the place where his ear should be. He repeated this motion at the other side. _

"_What's up?" Donatello asked like nothing odd had happened. Then Michelangelo, who had taken a breathing pause, started playing again and Donatello nodded understandingly. _

"_That's up." _

_Leonardo sighed frustrated. "This has to stop, I swear I just wish I could break that stupid flute in two!" _

_Donatello nodded in agreement. "It's driving me crazy. I even hear him when I wear those!" He said pointing to the cotton wool. _

"_I think he's doing this on purpose because he's still angry about us locking him in the closet." Leonardo said angrily. Now Raphael also joined in the conversation._

"_We're gonna lock Mikey in the closet again?" He said hopefully. _

_Leonardo pulled a face. "No, you dork! We got in trouble for that!" _

_Donatello put a hand over his mouth. "You said a bad word!" _

_Leonardo sighed at his brothers. "Guys! I'm telling you this has to stop! I don't know what you do, but I'm not going to put up any longer with this fluting!"_

_Raphael scowled. "Ow, are you talking about that." He said disappointed. _

_Leonardo looked unbelievingly at his brother. "Doesn't it bother you?"_

_Raphael shrugged. "No not really."_

_The turtle was at loss of words. How could his brother be okay with this? _

"_I don't care. I don't wanna hear it so I don't." _

_Donatello sighed. "I wish I could do that." He said admiring his brothers ability to tune out._

_Leonardo turned to Donatello again. "But you agree don't you?" _

_Donatello thought it over for a moment and then nodded. He wanted the bad sound to disappear as soon as possible. _

_Leonardo laughed approvingly and said: "Then we're going to break that flute!" _

_Raphael gasped. "You can't do that!" Leonardo looked at Raphael again. _

"_Why not?" He demanded. _

"_Mikey's very happy with his recorder! You would really hurt him if you'd break it." _

_Leonardo glared and stood up. "He's hurting us all with his playing, it's fair." _

"_I won't let you." Raphael said also standing now. _

Splinter stood up and went to the kitchen with his empty tea cup. "I'll be right back."

"I knew you loved me!" Michelangelo exclaimed. He ran towards Raphael and gave him a big hug. Raphael pulled a face but didn't throw his brother off.

"It was self-interest, we shared a room and otherwise ya'd be whining and crying all the time because your recorder was broken." Michelangelo didn't believe it and gave him one final hug. When Michelangelo returned to his seat Raphael mumbled some things and seemed a little bit embarrassed.

"Caught you." Casey mocked. "Always known you were a goody" Raphael punched Casey in the shoulder. "Shut up."

April smiled at Raphael. "I think it's sweet." Raphael shrugged and acted cool.

"What can I say, it just ain't was the honourable thing to do."

Leonardo looked offended because Raphael had stolen his line.

"And it is honourable to lock your little brother in a closet?" He asked sneering.

Raphael was ready to reply when April intervened.

"You can't throw that in his face Leo, he was just a kid." She said with the same accusing glare she had used before. There was no way Leonardo could do anything right for her at the moment.

Leonardo sighed hopelessly. "Never mind."

Splinter continued again with a fresh cup of tea in his hand.

"Where was I? Aha, right I remember."

"_I won't let you." Raphael said also standing now. _

_Donatello didn't want his brothers too fight so he stepped in between. "And what if we hide the recorder? I mean, it wouldn't be as bad as breaking it because we can give it back whenever we want."_

_Leonardo thought about this for a moment. "That could work." He said chewing on his lip. "And maybe he won't even miss it, or forget about his flute." _

_He and Donatello looked at Raphael. He grunted and crossed his arms. _

"_What ever, I don't want to have anything to do with this." He said while walking away. _

_Leonardo and Donatello spent the rest of the day plotting how and where they were going to hide the recorder. I myself decided not to intervene. You have to understand how horrible this sound was to my ears. Michelangelo ended his 'song' with one final blow and the lair fell silent. Rebellion was approaching, and my hopes got up. _

"That night I made sure Michelangelo would leave the recorder somewhere easy to find and when Raphael and Michelangelo were both asleep I sneaked back in the room again. I hid somewhere in the corner of the room where it was dark and sheltered."

Donatello gasped. "You spied on us?" he asked. The rat gave him a pointed look.

"You were stealing your brothers property."

Leonardo slapped his head "Hiding." He muttered.

"Anyways," Master Splinter told.

"_That night Donatello and Leonardo sneaked in their brothers room. Michelangelo and Raphael shared a room and bed, since there weren't enough beds for each of them. Donatello and Leonardo did the same in the room next to theirs. They quietly opened the door and peeked inside. Michelangelo was sound asleep with a steady breath. He was all curled up in the blanket and his face was turned towards the wall. Raphael was also asleep with his face turned towards the door. He was only half covered in the blanket since Michelangelo used so much of it, his breathing was light. Leonardo really had to stare at him to make sure he even was breathing. When he made sure the coast was clear he signed Donatello they could go in. They looked around for the recorder and eventually they found it, lying on the nightstand. Donatello grabbed the recorder and let Leonardo know he had it. Then Leonardo took over the flute and looked around. He smiled when he found what he was looking for. It was a box with al sorts of old toys they didn't use anymore. He got the box and opened it. In it was an old music box which I used to use as a lullaby when they were much younger. He took the flute from it's sack and separated the three pieces from each other. Then he put it back in the sac and opened the music box to put it in. The sweet silence was disturbed by the music coming from the box when he opened it. Donatello and Leonardo both jumped and Leonardo closed the box quickly again. Then he closed the old storage box and put it back on its place. He smiled at Donatello and they walked out. When Donatello closed the door he saw Raphael glaring at him. _

_I waited until I was sure Raphael was asleep again and stood up from my hiding spot. I also walked towards the old box and retrieved the music box. However, I also forgot it was a music box playing music when it is opened and the music escaped from the box. I snatched the sac with the flute and closed the box with a soft thud. I heard a soft grunting and Raphael shifted. Then suddenly he opened his eyes and stared at me. I froze and hoped he didn't see me after all, that it was too dark. He yawned and rubbed his eyes, I used this moment to close the big box and put it back again. I hid the flute in the pocket of my robe and walked out of the room after an apologizing nod towards Michelangelo. Some things just had to be done."_

"Sniff, I can't believe you guys did this to me. Do you even know how devastated I was when I noticed my recorder was gone? My precious gift from my Father. I had been so happy that he gave that gift to me of all people. I was determined to become the best flutist ever, so I could play music for money and so we'd never have any problems again. That way Master Splinter could stay home more often and we could all play together."

April sniffed. "That's so touching." She said. "You sacrificed your own time to help the others, and they were ungrateful and ended up stealing and lying to you."

"Man," Casey sighed. "you guys really are bastards."

"Excuse me!" Donatello intervened. "May I point out that firstly: We were kids! And secondly: The sound really really was aweful. Like nails scratching over a blackbord."

"I'm sorry to say this but I really don't understand Master Splinter. It seems cruel to take something from a sleeping child. That's just like stealing candy from a baby.. Well maybe even easier."

The aged rat nodded sadly.

"Now I look back at it all I must admit that I feel bad about it. Of course I feel bad about taking it in the first place, but I feel worse about lying to him the next day. When he came to me and asked if I had seen his recorder I lied trough my teeth and advised him too search around for himself. I even scolded him for being irresponsible with his belongings. But Miss O'Neil, do you know the worst part of it all?" Splinter asked with a voice full of sorrow.

"I didn't even feel bad about it at that time, I never felt a tiny bit of remorse. I was glad that I had a little bit more peace. I was happy I had one thing less to worry about since I was already so worried about feeding my sons and about our safety."

April hugged the rat. "It must have been a difficult time for you, I mean I'm tired after one evening with them. I can't imagine how difficult it must have been too raise four small turtle versions of them." Splinter nodded and stole a glance at Leonardo and Donatello.

"The rat." Donatello whispered to Leonardo. Splinter had heard this and sighed. "Oh, they didn't make it easy for me. Especially when they turned into teenagers."

The redhead shook her head in disapproval. "It's a good thing you have children like Michelangelo and Raphael who think and care about others." She said with a smile towards those two and a pointed look at the other brothers.

Donatello shook his head. "You know what, never mind. I don't even try anymore."

"Lets face it bro, we're the bad guys in this story." Leonardo replied agreeing with his 'partner in crime'.

"But now I need to know." Casey said. "What happened to the flute?"

Michelangelo turned expectantly towards his Father. "Yeah Sensei, what did you do with it?"

Master Splinter furrowed his eyebrows and coughed.

_The rat held the flute in his hand. The nice shaped wooden instrument felt light and innocent in his hand. He grinned and threw the recorder into the small fire he had made. He watched the fire until it had completely consumed the flute and __began meditating. The night passed by and when the fire had gone out he collected the ashes and collected them in a bottle. The next morning he emptied the bottle into the sewer water and watched peacefully as he imagined the ashes being carried away with the stinking water. _

Everyone was looking at him incredibly curious at what had happened with the flute.

"You know," he began. "I honestly can't remember."

-- The End --

_Thank you for reading! I hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it! The sad story of my flute and me: I was so happy with my flute until I came back from school one day and found out I'd lost it. Years later my mother and sister confessed they had hidden it somewhere, but couldn't remember where._

_I've never found it ever again. _

_O yeah, almost forgotten. I might ad other chapters to this story later, these will contain stories about the turtles growing up and every cute, funny or significant thing that happened in between. So tell me what you think about that. Have a nice day :)_


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